Dead End (Book 4): A Very Dark Place

by P. S. Power

  When Lamont got there he was already up on what was happening and didn't seem upset by it, just looking at the device in wonder.

  "So, this is what's going to save the world? A little metal box. Amazing."

  "It's the people that will save the world, but yeah, we need to protect the boxes too. Barb has a rifle and can fight, but I'm going to get some warrior types in here too. Is that OK?" It might not have been, Jake new. Not all the groups got along and most kind of hated the "Mind Rapers" as a rule. He'd have to make sure the ones they got in weren't like that, because if they were, Lamont and his people would know about it and that had to be distracting.

  Insulting too.

  It made Jake kind of glad he couldn't read minds as handy as having a power might have been at times. Too many people probably hated him for that to work.

  They agreed on a party of up to ten warrior types, as long as they could manage without being too disruptive mentally. Not that Jake could really assure that, but he could try.

  Then he got to spend the rest of the day, not just the morning, setting people up and making sure Morris knew where the materials had to go. It took longer than he thought it would, but by six in the evening they had eleven plants ready to go. The guards took longer, getting in at about midnight House time. Then, Cam informed him, she had to sleep or they'd end up inside a mountain or something.

  That pronouncement came just as they got back to her people's place, the hidden valley. It wasn't a coincidence either, since she had her own tent and everything there. She was an adult and kind of wanted to act like it. Having guests over and everything.

  The only shock there was that Colleen was inside, as well as another sleeping pad on the floor. The place was well arranged and tidy, but he would have thought she'd have been back to the House already. Maybe trying to work out how to forge things on her own.

  "Hi! Tansy came and got me a bit ago. She seems to think that we're... you know, together. I told her that Vicki and you were, kind of, but she just brought me anyway. I think she's trying to play match-maker." There was a small laugh with the words, but it wasn't meant to be hurtful, just pleased.

  Jake wasn't all that sure how he felt about her now though. On some level he liked her, even loved her, he could feel that. Then, on that level he loved almost everyone. Her song the night before, about Derrick, that had kind of hurt though. It wasn't fair of him, since Jake knew the man had been spewing out pheromones that could addict women, but several people had said that Colleen had loved him, and that sure didn't sound like it at all. The whole thing had been too direct and emotional for that. Hadn't it? It was like Colleen still loved the guy, even though he was dead.

  It wasn't a mistake though, she'd used his name in the song, so it was pretty solidly about him, unless some other guy named Derrick had been married to her sister that Jake didn't know about. That would have been wonderful, as far as he was concerned though. Almost anyone would have been better, to tell the truth.

  Even dead, Derrick Holsom was still screwing with his life. Jerk.

  He didn't mention it though, since her feelings were her own and not his business anyway. Not unless she wanted to talk about it, which thankfully she didn't. Instead they just wandered out to a communal meal with Morris and his wife, eating mainly rice, beans and something like seasoned lamb. It was good and filling, especially since they'd missed eating that day somehow. It could happen when you were on the go, but was a bad plan. He really needed to get one of those Technologist food machines so that he could take care of that for himself. If they had them to spare maybe a lot of places would find them useful?

  He decided to see to that the next day, smiling as he ate, using his fingers, since that was what they did here.

  He didn't have clean clothing with him, but there was a pile of stuff waiting for him, half of it in workday black, the other all in white shining materials. It was all reversible though, the other side having many bright, almost garish color schemes. That seemed to be the norm here then. Cam pointed to it as he came back.

  "A present from everyone. Morris hasn't told them that you're the Ba-Dehist either. They just know that you spent the day trying to make sure the world gets fixed. Willa got it all together. I think she likes you." Cam grinned at him, a look on her face that was a little sly, but certainly teasing.

  Colleen looked down.

  "No fair, I saw him first." It was said low, almost imperceptibly, but they all were so used to that kind of thing from nearly a year of living with the need, or at least months for the other two, that they all heard it.

  Cam however crossed her arms and stood up, "seriously Colleen? You got up last night and sang a love song to Jake's arch enemy. I doubt that's going to go over very well. OK, you were a bit loopy on drink, but anyone that the Ba-Dehist had to go out of his way to kill personally can't have been that great a guy."

  She looked more than a little pissed about it too, though Jake was surprised she knew the story at all. She explained that part though, without being asked.

  "Sammi told me. After it happened, so too late to stop you Colleen, but... yeah, so Willa is cute, don't you think Jake?" She looked at him, arms still crossed defensively as if it were some kind of personal issue for her.

  "Sure. Very attractive actually, but I doubt we have time for anything like that. Not soon. We need to make sure everything is running smoothly and then go and find the U.S. Military and get them set up too. Do you think Robert would know where they are?" It made sense, the Bawdri having infiltrated them for a while already.

  They'd have to ask in the morning.

  Colleen didn't seem ready to be done with the previous discussion though, even as Cam sat down, which was a waste of time as far as Jake was concerned. It was already a fact, and didn't need to be talked about. It was going to happen anyway though, since both she and Cam were women. He settled on a brown throw rug to wait, wondering if they could get to sleep soon, instead of going over this stuff?

  "What? You knew Derrick? I... I mean there has been some talk, but no one said..." She trailed off which would have been fine, except that Cam started explaining what she knew.

  "He was an Incubus, a man that could control women with sex. He had half the women in the House enslaved to his will when they kicked him out, or were going to. He'd tried to have Nate killed and the other men rose up against him. The whole time he was there he'd made it so that none of the women he slept with would like Jake, which led to all sorts of major trouble. Then he came back, you remember that, right? The big zombie attack at Christmas? It was him. How did you not hear his name? Anyway, Jake killed him, which saved us all. He'd been planning to go into the lower section, to try and capture all the women and then have the men killed. Real winner."

  The blond girl sat on the other bed pad, quietly for a while.

  "I... No one said who that was. Derrick? Are you sure? He wouldn't..."

  Except he did.

  It wasn't anything to chat about though, the man being dead. It just wouldn't make a difference now.

  A short time later, finally, the lamp was put out and Cam pulled him into bed next to her. They'd shared a bed before and she knew that, adult in her culture or not, she was too young for him. That meant they'd just sleep. As he drifted off he could hear Colleen softly sobbing in her own bed, for her lost love, but Jake was used to people crying themselves to sleep. It happened almost every night.

  The morning was no better, the blond girl looking miserable the whole time, but Jake got her back to the House, or rather Cam did, then they spent a few hours checking on everyone, finally ending up at the Lake, the Bawdri secret place, talking to Darian. There was a manufacturing set up there, and the materials had started coming in, but they hadn't released the compound yet.

  That just made sense, Alyssian was infected after all and the second they did it, she'd die forever. He knew that to be the case, because she told him, walking up to him fiercely, but not coming too close physically.

&n
bsp; "It is time then Great One? You said that you would come and deliver me if what we tried failed, if this became too much for me. I'd not take a life first, if that is allowable?" The words were polite, but Jake nodded, which got him scowled at by Darian, her father.

  "I don't think we've tried everything yet..."

  Alyssian started to speak, but Jake put up a hand, getting her to pause.

  "No... Darian... She's suffering so much... can't you feel it? I know she looks alive, but what kind of living is it? She's in pain, agony all the time, her will is hanging by a thread and she asks for you to let her go. It won't be easy, but you need to do it. For her sake. I..." He started to go for his nine, to end it all right then, but had another idea. In his pocket he had a few dozen of the capsules, which he'd taken to carrying as a matter of course the day before. Cam had a pocketful too, for the same reason. He dug one out and handed it to her.

  "Just squeeze it until it breaks when you're ready. It will clean the whole area. Go on your own time."

  Darian tried to hit him. It wasn't a clumsy blow, faster than a normal person could move in fact, but Jake moved out of the way easily enough, feeling calm about the whole thing as the attack continued. There was rage in the older man's motions, thousands of years of practice showing in how he attacked. That things weren't landing had less to do with Jake than the fact that the man wasn't actually angry at him, just the situation.

  "Damn you!"

  It went on for a few minutes before Jake stopped moving, ready to let the man beat him if it was needed for him to feel better about the situation. Darian stopped too, just panting a little.

  "Damn you... I'm not ready. She's barely lived!" He looked as his daughter closely, no tears coming, but the pain of lose already clear on his face.

  Alyssian smiled though, looking at the thing in her hand.

  "It's time father. Three hundred and sixty-two years is a life. I've lived and loved more than most beings are ever allowed. I've danced on the highest peaks and swum in every sea of this world. Now it is time to move on to whatever comes next, that's all." She turned to Jake, standing about ten feet away still, hunger for his flesh gnawing at her, even as she sounded perfectly fine.

  Her skin was zombie gray though, lips a red black, not the pink of the living.

  "Thank you... Jake. You were not what I expected at all, but you are exactly what I needed. Please see that everyone is assembled here?" She stood with her hands clasped, a grim smile on her lips.

  It took a while for everyone that wanted to gather to arrange themselves. It was a few hundred people, the brave and those that liked her well enough to watch her passing. Some of her loved ones weren't there to witness it at all, which was a mercy no doubt. Sammi wasn't there though, and she deserved a chance to say goodbye. Jake whispered it to Alyssian, but she shook her head.

  "No Great One. I must do this now, before I fail and lose control of my will. The time is past what I can stand by a good measure. I just wanted to say goodbye to you all, one last time. Tell my daughter that I love her? Father... Do not let this sadden you overly. It is my wish and by my own hand. That is a right all Bawdri have. Let all here witness this!" She got a little loud, raising her hand and squeezing until there was a soft click.

  "By this action I set myself free and begin the process that will save us all!"

  It wasn't instant, but ten minutes later she sank to the ground, smiling.

  "It doesn't hurt. It feels... nice. The pain recedes." Her words were very slurred by that time. It took another ten minutes for her to stop altogether, but no one moved for nearly an hour, just looking at her.

  A few sobbed, like the blond Bawdri man that Jake had seen before. Robert stood next to him, but the man moved to the body finally, speaking far more calmly than the tears on his face would have allowed most people.

  "Thank you all. This is a hard thing, but not a shock. My wife will live in our memories and in our daughter, Samantha. We will have the funeral rights as soon as she arrives."

  It was somber, but Cam disappeared without being told, coming back with Sammi ten minutes later, holding her hand tightly. She hadn't told her what had happened, leaving that to others, but Sam got the idea anyway.

  "She's gone then? I hope... I hope it was fast and without pain."

  Her father nodded, explaining the whole thing, how it had been her choice and how Jake had given her the ability to do it in a most gentle fashion. The man made it sound like a special gift, instead of something that anyone would have done if they could. If it hadn't been him it would have probably been one of the people from the House within a few days, releasing the compound by mistake. Or possibly on purpose even though it hadn't been the official plan.

  They had one of the more reluctant people working there, since Darian would flat out execute them if they didn't do their job. He was known for not putting up with people that shirked their duty. Or who whined too much.

  The procession took an hour, but Sammi sent him away after they had the body laid out, people coming to tend to it, Alyssian's favorite things placed around her in a gentle fashion, evenly spread around her body. She'd selected them herself, having given away those things she thought others might want or need already.

  It would be days though, before they burned the body. She was a Princess after all. A real one, meant to rule after Darian stepped down. Now he'd have to wait until Samantha was ready for it. The whole thing was a mess, but better organized than any Bawdri funeral had ever been before. Alyssian had been planning it for weeks and had everything ready. Even to the fact that Jake wasn't supposed to be there, after he killed her, if she couldn't do it herself. Not as a punishment, but so he'd know that she appreciated the gesture and so that it wouldn't cause him any more pain.

  Those that helped others move on were always held away from the mourning in their culture, so that no one would blame them, in their grief.

  Darian would for a while no doubt, but Robert just looked at him and sighed, putting a hand on Jake's shoulder gently before they could leave.

  "She was in greater pain than you knew. She hid it well, but it was a constant torment. I... She asked me to end it for her, over a week ago. I failed in the task. I tried, but I couldn't make myself pull the trigger. I guarded her life too long. Thank you for what you did. No one else can say it yet, but it was the right thing. The only thing left to try." He didn't cry, but his face looked as sad as any Jake had ever seen.

  It was a hard thing to ask, but Jake had to find out where the military might be. He almost expected Robert to balk, or hit him, but the man just nodded and took him to a rather nice room in a very big house. It was a "cabin" but had electric lights and antique furniture that was very well cared for. Once inside he laid a map of the United States on large wooden table that was polished to a high gloss.

  He pointed firmly.

  "Here. It's only about six hundred miles from the House. Outside of Omaha Nebraska on the West. There is a fence around the whole place and it's heavily guarded. If you approach I suggest you do it on foot, slowly. The area still has deaders. So, you get the idea, make sure you look alive. I'd get close, release those nanos and pull back for a while, let them get used to the idea that all walking people aren't dead first. Maybe a week or so? Do you need to go overland or can your Scalli... Can our friend Cameron do it?" He turned to look at the girl who actually gave him a small, tight, smile.

  "I can. We'll have to do it line of sight, but through a lot of that we can go fast enough. It will take a few days and we should probably clean the whole path we take, but... yeah."

  That decided they left from there, leaving the man alone in his grief. He gave them a map though and marked the location first, so it wouldn't be that hard to find, hopefully.

  Except for the cold and the fact that, as the next few days went on, they encountered dozens of zombies as they traveled, just coming out right on top of them a few times. That and three lone cannibals that were much different than the others h
e'd seen before. They were in ragged clothing, looked thin and pale, with longer than normal arms and legs. It might have been an illusion, but they were darned hard to hit, because they moved so fast. He could tell what they were, Windigo, like Sammi had said, but they didn't just seem like people that had lost it and gained power from not caring anymore. They were more than human somehow.

  They also came out of the snow fast and hard.

  It was kind of interesting to travel with Cam that way, since it was a lot faster than a car would have been, as long as she could see someplace to go clearly enough. It meant jumps of no more than eight miles and less if there was snow in the air though. Plus she got tired after a while, so they only covered a few hundred miles a day. Once she knew a location she could go back though, so they stayed at her place at night, which was both warm and more relaxing than being at the House. It meant that she didn't get to have a lot of male company of course, but then they were both too tired for anything but sleep at the end of the day anyway.

  On the fourth day it was snowing so much on the first jump that Jake just decided to call it a day and go off to check on the Linsters and the others again. Carley had taken over part of the manufacturing work for them along with burning trees from the jungle to make carbon. They were running out of that faster than anything else, it seemed, since no one was actively refining it. It was a lot easier to do in the jungle than the frozen ground of the House apparently.

  "Hey Jake! Finally going to do some real work instead of traipsing all around the world with your little girlfriend?" The blond was hot, probably one of the best looking people left, but she didn't like men much as a rule.

  It wasn't that she hated them, but her culture, the Killgrades, they didn't have a lot of men and had traditionally made a living using their skills to kill the others of that gender they met. It didn't lead to a lot of positive male role models. Her words would have bugged him a month before, but now he could tell she was just trying, and failing, to be playful.